Next Time
by Elisabeth Harker
Summary: David and Jack discuss some things in the post-strike afterglow. Friendship/slash. Fluff.


Disclaimer: I don't own the Newsies. Not a single character mentioned in this fic belongs to me.

,.;.;

The strike had been over for two days. David stood beside Jack just outside the window the led to his home. He wondered if this would become a tradition, the two of them sore and exhausted from a day's selling, just standing out here in the waning twilight and talking over everything until his father called him in for bed. He hoped that it would.

"You ain't half bad at pushing papers," Jack said, leaning against the railing. David smiled and looked down at his hands, which were close enough to Jack's that their fingers nearly touched.

"I've had more practice striking than selling," he admitted.

"You are… _amazing…_ at striking."

Jack cast him a beaming smile, and David felt happy. It was strange how content he felt around Jack, but then he supposed he'd never had a friend like him before. It wasn't as though he'd been a total pariah at school, but the few people there who he might have hesitantly called "friends" had always given him the distinct impression that he ought to watch every word that came out of his mouth, lest he stumble over them, or say too much, or overanalyze life the way they were always saying he overanalyzed his text books. He'd been able to talk to them about facts, things that were boring and bland and proven, cold hard mathematics, when their next essay was due and how many words it had to be… with Jack there was the feeling of excitement and the feeling of possibility that there just hadn't ever been with anybody else.

"I'm not," David said. "I never would have done it on my own."

"Don't guess anyone would've. You ever heard of a one man strike? You'd have to be the president or some kind of big wig or another for something like that to work."

"There was a moment at the rally… I don't think you saw it, you had too many other things to worry about, but I was trying to hold off Snyder with a plank of wood from the swing, and I'm not sure I would have ever managed it, but suddenly there were five or six other boys standing behind me…"

Here David trailed off, wondering how to best finish his story. He knew that the moment had been important, one of the more important ones in his life, but he wasn't sure he felt ready to describe it. He glanced over at Jack, who was watching him as seriously as anybody had ever watched him in his life.

"They did it 'cause they like you," Jack said. There was a warmth to his voice that David could feel all over, but even given a pen and paper, a thousand words, and all the time in the world to write down his thoughts, he knew he'd never be able to explain it.

He drummed his fingers absently against the rickety metal of the railing. The sun was lower now. He could see candles being placed in the windows of nearby apartments. He considered telling Jack what it looked like standing in this very place in the winter, when night came early and just about anybody who could afford to put out their candles and their gas lamps. With any luck, after a few months, he'd be around to see for himself.

Jack clapped him on the back, and David stood a little straighter.

"Well, I better go. We'll be up bright and early carryin' the banner?"

"Right."

Jack patted him on the shoulder and then turned away. David watched him make his way down the steep steps. He was about three from the ground when he turned back towards David, watching him for a few seconds as if considering whether or not to speak.

"Hey Davey?" He said finally, hands jammed in his pockets.

"Yeah?"

"You know what I said about those guys all liking you?"

David nodded.

"Well, I guess you know I was kinda occupied, when it came to the rally and the swing and all that, and considerin' you was the one trying to rescue me and all…"

"Next time."

Jack nodded. "Yeah. Next time."

_Notes: Well, that's not what I was planning to write __**at all**__. This was supposed to be a fic about David trying to make sense of all the lies that Jack told him during the Newsies film, and instead it just turned all fluffy and vaguely romantic. _

_Originally posted on my tumblr. _


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